The present invention relates to the assembly of a rim and a closed torus tire mounted thereon.
As used herein, "closed torus tire", "closed tube tire", and "closed toroidal tire" will be understood to mean a tire providing a completely closed inflation chamber capable alone, without being mounted on a rim, of containing fluid pressure therein higher than the surrounding atmospheric pressure. In this specification, closed torus tire, closed tube tire, and closed toroidal tire are used and intended to distinguish from "open-base tires" having generally horseshoe-shaped radial cross-sections, thus not being capable of containing fluid pressure without being mounted on a rim.
Open base, or conventional horseshoe-shaped tires have substantially inextensible annular beads located near the radially inner extremities of their sidewalls. The beads hold the open base tire on a rim by being forced against flanges, located at the axial ends of the rim, by the fluid pressure inside the inflation chamber formed by the assembly of the tire and rim. Closed torus tires to not have beads, instead they have "roll-restraining hoops" which are substantially inextensible annular rings to keep the closed torus tire from rolling off of a rim in a lateral direction. The configuration of the roll-restraining hoops in a closed torus tire makes it impossible to button-hook a closed torus tire onto a single piece rim. Heretofore, closed torus tires have either been: bonded to annular rims, as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,293, issued to W. W. Curtiss, Jr., et al; manufactured integral to rims, as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,110,141, issued to V. A. Caravito; or mounted on specially designed rims such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,998,258, issued to C. E. Grawey et al, and 4,181,169 issued to C. E. Grawey et al. The closed torus tire/rim assembly of this invention is adaptable to a variety of vehicles and makes the mounting of a replacement tire upon the rim, without damaging the tire originally mounted upon the rim, possible.